It has long been known to support a dock on vertical wood pilings. Typically, two rows of pilings are driven, one row on each side of the intended dock, the rows extending the length of the dock. A pair of transverse beams, for example wood 2.times.6's or 2.times.8's or 2.times.10's, extend widthwise of the dock and are sandwichingly fixed to transversely opposite piles, one of each of the two rows, by spikes, lag screws or the like. This makes a row of generally H-shaped frames, each comprising two transversely opposite piles and their connecting transverse beams. Longitudinal joists extend lengthwise of the dock, adjacent the opposed inboard sides of the piles and are carried upon the transverse beams, to which they may (or may not) be fixed. The walkway, or horizontal surface of the dock, is then typically provided by horizontal cross planks supported atop the joists and running transversely thereof, and nailed or lag screwed thereto.
This makes a sturdy, practical, long lasting and reasonably inexpensive dock framework but one which cannot easily allow its walkway to be raised and lowered to meet substantial increases and decreases (for example seasonal ones or ones occurring over a cycle of several years). Unfortunately then, in docks of this kind, the walkway may at times be submerged under water or may be far enough above water level to make it inconvenient to step back and forth between boat and dock.
Accordingly, the objects and purposes of the present invention include provision of a dock support engageable with an upstanding piling for supporting a beam, and usually a pair of beams in straddling relation, with respect to such pile; in which such support can be adjusted up or down on the piling to provide for support of the dock beams, joists and cross planks, and thereby the walkway, at different heights, for example to accommodate substantial rises and falls in water level; in which the support is adaptable to pilings of a wide range of diameters and to a wide range of separations of straddling beams; in which the support is capable of strongly gripping a piling sufficient to prevent its sliding downward on the piling despite heavy downward loads applied thereto and to the dock supported thereby; in which the dock support is strongly built and capable of supporting heavy loads and thereby is usable in heavy duty docks; in which the support is readily and quickly installable with a minimum of instruction and no tools except a simple end notched lever or a common wrench; in which the support is easily constructible of commonly available materials without special tooling; in which the support is capable of a long operating life without attention and is capable of being adjusted in position on a piling many times; in which the support may be shifted from piling to piling or dock to dock as the need may arise; and in which plural ones of the supports are used to support a given dock, typically with one such support per piling.